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Detour
While traveling to a conference with Scully and two other FBI agents, Mulder stops at a roadblock to join a nearby inspection of attacks by an unidentified predator. Summary A pair of surveyors are working on plotting out an area of the forest deep in the everglades when they are attacked by unseen assailants with glowing red eyes and killed. Later in the day, a father, son, and their dog are hunting for possums in the same stretch of woods when they come across the abandoned equipment. Finding the bloody jacket of one of the surveyors, the father orders his son to run home as fast as he can and not stop for anything. As the son and dog take off, he loads his shotgun amidst the sounds of rustling in the underbrush ahead. Meanwhile, Mulder and Scully are sharing a road trip with Agents Kinsley and Stonecypher, en route to a leadership and "team building" seminar. A visibly uncomfortable and annoyed Mulder is relieved when they are stopped at a roadblock by local police, who inform them that they seem to have had a shooting up ahead. Mulder decides to investigate. Mulder briefly speaks with the boy's mother, who is frantic because no one will tell her what has happened to her husband. Making their way deeper into the woods, Scully and Mulder encounter more local law enforcement who inform the pair that they haven't found the body of the father, but have evidence of a shooting. That night, at home, the boy tells his mother that he suspects his father is dead, as he was a good shot and if he had hit what he was shooting at, he'd have been home already. In the meantime, Mulder and Scully are at the hotel for the reception. Scully visits Mulder in his room with a plate of cheese, and Mulder informs her that no animals in the wild will attack the strongest member of its prey when a weaker target is available. Later that night at the home of the family, the dog (Bo) is upset and begins barking. The mother goes out to fetch him and bring him back in the house, but when she tries, she sees that the door has been bolted from the inside. The boy (Louis) is cornered by one of the creatures and just barely manages to escape through the dog door where he runs into Mulder, informing him that "it" is in the house. The next morning, law enforcement is on the scene at the house and Scully and Mulder discuss the previous night's happenings. Mulder mentions that they found some tracks outside which appear to be human, but that the weight distribution is all wrong. Also, the fact that the creature attacked and killed three grown men and disposed of the bodies, as well as luring the mother outside of the house in order to get to Louis suggests to Mulder that the creatures are paranormal in nature. That, combined with the population pressures as human habitation expands might be at work in these killings. An expedition into the woods with law enforcement and Infrared devices proves fruitless, as one of the officers is attacked after having been separated from the rest and the creatures fail to appear on the radar. At this point, Mulder advances the possibility that the creature is related to the Mothman of Point Pleasant, WV. Shortly, Mulder and Scully lose their only other companion to the creatures (despite the fact that Scully is able to wound it with her pistol), and they are left alone, lost in the woods as night falls. That night, Scully and Mulder attempt to build a campfire and fail miserably. In order to help stay awake, Mulder convinces Scully to sing for him, which she does rather reluctantly, belting out a sadly uninspired rendition of "Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog." The next morning, Scully and Mulder are foraging for berries, when Scully falls through a hole, into an underground bivouac where the bodies of their missing companions are stored. She sees a pair of red eyes coming towards her and shoots, as Mulder drops into the hole with her. Having killed the creature, Mulder and Scully take a look at it and see that it is remarkably human-like, albeit with a wood-like texture to its skin. Near them the words "Ad Noctum" are found carved into a tree trunk. Shortly thereafter, Agents Stonecypher and Kinsley, with police in tow, locate Mulder and Scully and help them out of the hole. Kinsley remarks that they got all the credit while Scully and Mulder did all the work. He also shows Mulder a crosscut of a tree with various dates inscribed on the rings including that of 1521, with Ponce de Leon searching for the Fountain of Youth in Florida. Mulder suggests that perhaps the predators are the result of Conquistadors who found the fountain and have adapted to life in the deep everglades and are acting aggressively out of a need to defend their territory from encroachment. Kinsley ridicules the idea, although he admits that "Ad Noctum" was a phrase often used by the Conquistadors as they tortured and massacred Indians. Unfortunately, a further inspection of the cave reveals that the body of the creature Scully killed has mysteriously vanished and that they have been unable to locate it. Realizing something is amiss, Mulder rushes off to the hotel. Meanwhile, back at the hotel room, Scully is packing. She takes her clothes from the closet and the camera lingers as if it will detect one of the predators. It doesn't. A similar thing happens concerning a chair. No dice. There is a knock at the door. It's Mulder, who urges Scully to take what she has and flee with him. They do. The camera moves back into the hotel room probing places a predator might be. The camera pans under the bed where... a pair of red eyes open. Background Information The episode is one of several which takes place in Florida. Links and References Guest Stars * Scott Burkholder as Agent Michael Kinsley * Colleen Flynn as Officer Michele Fazekas * Merrilyn Gann as Mrs. Asekoff * Alf Humphreys as Michael Asekoff * Simon Longmore as Marty Fox * Anthony Rapp as Jeff Glaser * Tom Scholte as Michael Sloan * Tyler Thompson as Louis Asekoff * JC Wendel as Agent Carla Stonecypher References SEMICOLON-SEPARATED LIST OF ITEMS/LOCATIONS REFERENCED IN EPISODE (BUT NOT LINKED TO IF ALREADY LINKED IN SUMMARY OR GUEST STARS SECTIONS) Category:X-Files episodes